The Planet Of Doctor Carlz
by MasterShaper
Summary: The Jedi are marshalled to stop a mad scientist who has created a literal shophouse of horrors on a distant, abandoned planet. CHARACTER DEATH. AU.
1. Prologue: Feeding Time

**Feeding Time**

Kyp Durron snapped out of his reverie. He was in a dark, musty-smelling room with several ysalamiri stuck to the ceiling. The dim, yellowish glowpanels flickered occasionally, casting the room into darkness at random. He tried to get up, but couldn't feel his legs. He glared at the ysalamiri. Damn things were blocking the Force from entering his prison. The ysalamiri merely crawled around on the ceiling, which appeared to be made of plastiform. Kyp lay down tiredly, feeling nauseous.

The door to the room opened, and a man about two meters tall entered, flanked by two robed figures. Kyp looked him over, noting his exquisitely embroidered clothes, mother-of-pearl buttons, and the two cross-draw blasters in their holsters on his seemingly genuine dewback-leather belt. Kyp spoke up ,"The blasters spoil your outfit's looks."

The man smiled slowly, "My, my. Master Durron, _charming _to the last minutes of his life. Sad to say, you've stumbled upon my base of operations, and at peak season, when I just _can't_ afford to be raided by the Galactic Alliance's Department For Biological Hazard Control. Hence, you will be killed, right now, right here, in this very complex."

Kyp stared at the man in puzzlement, as the two robed figures stepped forward and roughly grabbed his forearms, and proceeded to drag him out into the corridor. He tried to sense the Force, but to his dismay, sensed nothing, but merely saw more ysalamiri all over the place, clinging to transparent pipes with greenish liquid bubbling inside them. The man and his two flunkies dragged Kyp to a large blast door, studded with rivets the size of Kyp's fist, which was closed. The man turned to Kyp, "This door is plated with cortosis alloy. Your Jedi glow-sticks wont even scratch it."

The man then recited a series of numbers into a speaker on the door, which then lifted, giving Kyp, from his low viewpoint, a glimpse at the corridor beyond. He saw numerous transparisteel sections of wall, which emitted some faint blue light. The light was the only lighting in the room beyond the blast door.

The door finally opened all the way, and Kyp was dragged past the door, which immediately closed once they had gotten past it. He looked at one of the transparisteel walls, and let out a gasp.

Inside the cell was a voxyn, but smaller in size and with webs in between its claws. The voxyn was pacing its cell, occasionally stopping to pick at the body of a humanoid corpse on the floor of its cell. He looked into other cells, and saw a large patch of greenish slime on the floor of a cell, a bluish lizard that had pinkish, bat-like wings sprouting out of its back, a massive shaggy quadruped creature with four long, curved tusks protruding out from under its long proboscis, a cephalopod creature swimming around in a water-filled cell, and the last thing he saw was a plant-resembling organism, which had five thick prop roots, and a tangle of vines surrounding a black-colored mouth filled with long fangs at its crown. The man stopped in front of this cell, and turned to face Kyp.

"You see, my dear Jedi, I have dabbled in the mysterious art of genetics. Particularly gene-splicing and cloning. Through my knowledge, and the aid of my friend, I have successfully created over a hundred different species of animals that were once existent only on myths and legends. I also managed to resurrect some of the Yuuzhan Vong's more… fascinating… creations, which I genetically modified, of course. These animals you see here , provide me with credits, and billions of them, at that. People always want something exotic as a pet- some buy my artworks as weapons instead. Mythical or not, these creatures give me some… wait, billions… of credits. As we speak, I already have two hundred booking orders for specific organisms, with a potential total income of 5 billion credits. What do YOU think?"

Kyp was aghast at the man's words. So, he had been the one who had supplied various rich people with highly dangerous organisms, including several of his modified voxyn. So far, none of the voxyn's victims had lived to see its modifications. The voxyn had been found wandering, and just the day before, an eccentric billionaire had been found dead, from deep claw marks. His entire staff of servants had been found dead, all of them in their respective quarters. The three voxyn had been spotted wandering in the dark alleys of Coruscant, and had died of their rapid aging process. The DFBHC officials had found puddles of reeking neuro-toxic fluid- all that was left of the voxyn- three weeks after the billionaire's death. The fluid had somehow entered the slum's water supply, and hundreds of low-class civilians had perished. Besides the voxyn, there also had been recent sightings of previously unknown organisms, particularly on Coruscant. What the Hell had this man created and sold!

The man grinned, gesturing to his two robed goons, "Goodbye, Master Durron."

Kyp suddenly found himself falling down through a twisting, greased chute. He fell into a pool, with a loud splash. He surfaced, clinging to a vine that hung into the water. He looked around fearfully upon hearing a soft, hissing sound. He heard a splash, and felt the water's surface ripple. Looking around, he saw nothing. All of a sudden, he felt as though he was floating in jelly, not water. The 'jelly' then started to solidify, constricting him, and making it hard to breathe.

The man watched Kyp flailing around in agony from his computer console. He saw Kyp being crushed by one of his genetically-altered animals, a 'Mucous Water Python'. The snake had the ability to move its molecules further apart, and make itself into a viscous mucous. It would then wrap around its victim, while reforming its body. It was a magnificent animal, and could kill a bantha within mere minutes, due to the potency of its venom. The man saw Kyp finally stop moving, his neck showing two small puncture marks. The translucent snake then opened its jaws wide, and proceeded to slowly ingest Kyp, headfirst. He sighed. He so enjoyed feeding time, but it rarely had this level of entertainment in it.


	2. The Accidental Discovery

**The Accidental Discovery**

**Jaina and Jacen were in the Conference Chamber of the Super Star Destroyer 'Guardian', attending a meeting regarding the disappearance of several Jedi, most notably Kyp Durron. He had been missing for three months, and some people had presumed him dead. He had gone off on a mission to check out some strange ship disappearances in the Mid Rim, specifically the Nal Hutta system. More than twenty ships had mysteriously disappeared, and recently occurring, random hyperspace disturbances had made it extremely hard to enter the Nal Hutta system. Kyp had been assigned to check it out, but hadn't returned in three months. Communications from the Yuuzhan Vong-terraformed world and its machinery encased moon Nar Shadaa had stopped of late, with unintelligible bursts of static coming through from the system.**

**At the round meeting table, Cal Omas, Grand Admiral Pellaeon, Admiral Traest Kre'fey, Princess Leia, Han Solo, Luke and Mara Jade Skywalker, and Jacen and Jaina were heatedly discussing Kre'fey's proposal to send a small flotilla of battleships to Nal Hutta. Heatedly here meaning that several people at the table were already staring at each other venomously. Han Solo was currently making his opinion known, very loudly.**

"**I tell you, there's something wrong there! There never has been a communications blackout in Hutt Space! Yeah, Kyp might have stopped off at Kessel to visit Lando or something, but the least we should do is check out Hutt Space," he said, pounding his fist on the table.**

**Cal Omas stood up, saying, "You expect me to authorize this gundark-brained scheme that will probably end up as a wild bantha chase! It's a waste of firepower, that's what it is! I personally think that the blackout of communications from Hutt Space is negligible, and for the better! Hutts were and still are foul, vile creatures, anyway!"**

**Luke then raised his hand, and calmly stood up, just as Han was about to shout at Omas. He turned to stare at all the people in the conference room, "I say this; we should check out the unusual happenings in Hutt Space. Remember this; Hutts are no longer in control of the system. Unknown forces are at work here. I propose that a team of Jedi be sent there, to scout out the system."**

**Luke took in a deep breath. Turning to Jacen and Jaina, he asked, "Would you two be willing to investigate Hutt Space? You could take along Kirana Ti, Dorsk 82, and the Chaa triplets."**

**Jacen and Jaina looked at each other, and shrugged, "We're in."**

**xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx**

**Doctor Carlz, the richly dressed man who had just witnessed Kyp Durron's death by being eaten by one of his genetically engineered beasts, turned to the communication screen on the wall. Pressing several buttons rapidly, he spoke into a voice receiver on the wall, saying, "Buter, Laboratory 18."**

**After a few seconds, an image of a white-haired, thin man wearing large, tinted goggles appeared on screen. Carlz spoke, "Is it ready?"**

**The man on-screen replied irritably, "She's ready, all right. I was just fine-tuning the last nucleotide sequences for her deoxyribonucleic acid material when you interrupted me! Now I'll have to re-code the gaps in the deoxyribonucleic acid strand."**

**Carlz sniggered, "Buter, my dear friend, when will you ever start to refer to deoxyribonucleic acid as DNA? It's much simpler than the whole kriffing word. And the Mucous Water Python works beautifully. I just fed it."**

**Buter, the xenobiologist cum xenogeneticist on the other end of the line, snarled at him from the screen, removing the goggles to reveal large, reptilian-looking, constantly rotating eyes, "DNA, huh? I just can't recall the acronym for deoxyribonucleic acid! Damn it, you bantha-brain! You called me up and interrupted my work to tell me that you _fed_ a Mucous Water Python! Those things aren't entertaining enough, I tell you! If it had been a Bafforr Hunter, Diffusion Beast, or even a Shroud Creature, then…"**

**Carlz wagged a finger at Buter's image, smiling, "Yeah, the Bafforr Hunters are fascinating to watch, though I must say that their feeding habits are somewhat gory for me to be interested in. Diffusion beasts, they kill too slowly, but with amazing results. As for the Shroud Creature, it would have been like watching one of those holodramas where the victim of a murder is wrapped up in a blanket and suffocates. BUT, the person I fed to the python was particularly suited for the testing of our organisms' hardiness."**

**Buter snorted with relish, "I hope you finally killed that hopeless security guard, Kenth."**

**Carlz lent towards the screen, "Ah, my friend, it wasn't Kenth-another day, maybe-but a Jedi."**

**Buter's eyes grew wide, "A _Jedi_! My, my, we've done it!"**

**xxxxxxxxxxxxx**

**Jacen, Jaina, Dorsk 82, Kirana Ti, and the Chaa triplets waited in the New Republic's Coruscant-based Military hangar for their transport- a YT-1300 freighter like Han's, but modified to have extra firepower. As they, stood in the hangar, smelling the lube and grease odor in the air, and watching dozens of mechanics do their daily work of fixing, repairing, and maintaining the ships, Jaina turned to Jacen, hoping to strike up conversation while they waited, "What do you think has happened?"**

"**I have no idea, but I can bet it's nothing good. Who ever heard of Hutt Space being silent?" replied Jacen.**

"**Thatsssss like sssssaying that Barabelsssss and Chaa don't like meat sssstuffsssss," hissed one of the Chaa triplets, while the other two sassed with laughter.**

"**It's here!" said Dorsk 82 excitedly, as their scout ship/ freighter was piloted into the hangar from one of Coruscant's orbiting starship repair stations. The ship was battered-looking and had more than the usual number of hastily welded on metal plates and pipes. It also had curiously blackened, damaged-looking sublight drives, but the mechanics had assured them that the drives were rather extensively modified MoDoggs that were very capable of bringing them to high accelerations. The head mechanic in charge of refitting the YT-1300, a burly Givin named Polygon-Givin often named themselves with mathematical terms- had jokingly said that, "These MoDoggs will give your old man a run for his money!"**

**They silently boarded the ship, quickly going to their assigned stations. Dorsk 82 and Kirana Ti were stationed at the dorsal and ventral quad-lasers, the Chaa triplets were stationed at the navicomputer, sensor, and shield controls, and Jacen and Jaina were piloting the ship. The ship lifted off, and slowly moved out of the hangar. As soon as it had cleared the 1 kilometer radius of the hangar's no-stopping safety zone, the ship turned on its symmetrical axis, pointing its bow towards the Nal Hutta system, as per pre-programmed instructions. Jacen turned to the others, grinning, "Next stop, Nal Hutta!"**

**xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx**

**In Buter's laboratory, high-terawatt voltage coursed through titanic coils of cortosis-coated copper cables, illuminating the darkened room with neon green light. Shadows danced around as the light was reflected off the curved surfaces of clone tanks, reflected off racks of vials containing strange fluids, refracted through the liquid in several cloning tanks, casting the shadows of semi-developed organisms within the tanks onto the walls. **

**Large, blue tanks emblazoned with the words, 'Hormone Medium' and some others, 'Embryo Culture Medium' stood tall against two of the laboratory's walls, monolithic and imposing. In the middle of the room were the clone tanks, glowing yellow from the liquid medium inside them. Various _things_ floated inside the tanks, some fully developed, some merely resembling twisted fetuses. Most were empty.**

**Buter himself stood hunched over a complicated computer keyboard, looking like some demented Bith musician over his Omnii. Buter tapped several keys, causing the screen in front of him, which was portraying a double helix shape-a DNA strand- to rotate the image, and change the colors of various nucleotides of the DNA strand. Buter clapped his hands together happily, as a picture of a tentacled cephalopod appeared on screen. He rushed over to the adjacent wall from the computer console, turning several dials marked with strange symbols, and pulled a lever marked with the words, 'HIGH VOLTAGE: 8 TERAWATTS CAPACITOR'.**

**One of the empty clone tanks, labeled as, 'CT 001', began to vibrate slightly, the yellow fluid inside beginning to bubble and swirl. Several thread-thin wires slowly lowered into the fluid, dangling down from the half-submerged machinery on the top of the tank. From the bottom of the tank, a greenish mass of cells floated up into the yellow cloning medium from the bottom of the tank. The wires then touched the tissue, unseen nano-pipettes inserting the modified DNA into the enucleated cells. The cells , which hadn't yet differentiated, were fitted with the modified DNA, enabling the organism cloned from them to grow to gigantic proportions, attain maturity in less than eight standard years, develop armored scales as well as caustic blood and bodily fluids, and have savage aggression, as well as a colossal appetite. Electric currents ran through the cells, joining the cells with the new genetic material. Buter, observing the process eagerly, began to sweat. He had only ever cloned _one _of this kind of animal before. And it was amazingly hostile, yet reclusive. The new genes he had inserted into the DNA should have removed all reclusiveness, replacing it with bloodlust and easily sparked off anger. The other fifteen attempts at cloning the Kraken-once a mythical beast, but now for real-had failed, even though it was a bunch of simple genetic modifications to the DNA of the Great Arctic Skra'akan of Mon Calamari. The cephalopod beast was naturally hostile, even without the genetic modifications. Buter's modifications had made the first Kraken fast-growing, grow larger, and made it fiercer. But it only attacked when provoked…. And where was the use in that! Who wanted a fierce but _shy_ 'beast'!**

**Buter turned his attention back to the mass of cells, which, to his genetically-altered eyes (which could see microscopic objects-they were a modified version of the Yuuzhan Vong's maa'it organisms) could be seen slowly undergoing the prophase of cellular mitosis, the nuclear membranes disintegrating to reveal shortened, thickened chromosomes. He watched the chromosomes slowly lined up at the cell's equatorial plates, and were slowly being pulled apart by the centrioles at the poles of the cell. Buter smiled, as the cells finally entered the telophase stage of mitosis, the cleavage furrow forming down the middle of the cell. The cell slowly narrowed down the middle, forming two daughter cells, the once small mass of cells in the cloning tank now forming specialized and differentiated cells. Buter looked at his chronometer; one and a half hours had passed, and the cells were dividing extremely well. He smiled, walking towards the doorway of the laboratory to report this to Carlz, his friend and business associate.**

**Carlz was watching the people they had kidnapped from ships bound for Nal Hutta doing slave manual labor, via holocam, as they mined ores, precious metals, and gems from the gullet of one of Buter's more creative works-a beast which resembled a network of tunnels, and which produced gems, ores, and precious metals as metabolic by-products of its digestion. The slaves slowly picked out the valued items from the creases in the beast's gullet, from the pools of digestive enzymes, from the piles of mulched food, fetid, decaying masses of unidentifiable origin, and even from the bodies of prey that had been stuck in the beast's gullet for Force-knows-how-long. Outside the beast's body, some slaves were rooting through the massive spoors of the beast, picking out the gems and metals-the ores stayed inside the beast for some reason. The slaves had produced approximately 2 billion credits worth of the beast's metabolic by-products. Buter burst into his control room, his unnerving eyes rolling around in excitement.**

"**The second Kraken is on the way!" he proudly shouted, making Carlz jump.**

"**Excellent. I have just received news that the New Republic is sending several _Jedi_ to investigate the ship disappearances in this system. Is the first Kraken still easily provoked by low frequency wavelengths?" said Carlz.**

"**Let's have a look," replied Buter, moving over to a computer console, tapping several keys, and bringing up a map of the planet. A section of the map self-magnified, and a red dot appeared against the blue of the ocean. The Kraken was still in the reef cluster where it had made its nest. Buter keyed in another command, bringing the picture of a small group of slaves in a cell. The cell then was raised over the reef cluster by a small repulsorlift equipped-droid, and the slaves tipped out. They hit the water, and treaded the water, as a low frequency sound was made through the droid's externally-mounted speakers.**

**The panicked slaves began to group together, as the water around them bubbled. Shouts and wails of panic were heard. But suddenly, some of the slaves were pulled under the surface, causing the remaining three to cling to each other in fear. As the Kraken-provoking noise intensified, the remaining three were lifted out of the water by long, sucker-covered tentacles. They were then bodily tossed through the air, landing on the jagged coral reefs, crushed to death by constriction, and were pulled underwater where a large shadow was moving around jerkily. The sea returned to its normal, calm, state in mere minutes after that. Buter turned to Carlz, saying, "Does that answer your question?"**

**xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx**

**The bright colors of hyperspace swirled around the Jedi scout-ship. Fesa, one of the Chaa triplets, glanced at the navicomputer, and announced, "Leaving hypersssssspaccccce in 5, 4, 3, 2, 1…. NOW!"**

**The_ Scout_-they had named the YT-1300 that- dropped out of hyper space within two light years of the Nal Hutta system. The Jedi tensed; they were going to use the Bakuran's Hyperspace Inertia and Momentum Preservers (HIMS) to 'bounce' into the Nal Hutta system, much like a pebble being skimmed across the surface of a pond. Jumping in-and-out of hyperspace that rapidly was dangerous, and as they powered up the hyperdrive, the all thought as an accord, 'May the Force be with us.'**


	3. It's A Jungle Out There

**It's A Jungle Out There**

**The scout ship burst out of hyperspace in a flurry of colors, and the small ship shook alarmingly, parts rattling, as the Jedi inside tried to stabilize the ship. The ship had fared rather badly during the protracted hyperspace jumps, nearly breaking down along the way. Jaina had been cursing Polygon as they struggled with the ship through hyperspace. They were now within two planetary diameters of Nal Hutta, which was much greener than they remembered it to be.**

"**It's much greener than it used to be," remarked Jacen, looking at the others.**

"**Yeah, the Vong probably terra-formed it really well," replied Kirana Ti, who was busy sharpening her concealable dagger.**

"**Nah, they didn't terra-form Nal Hutta. This must have been the result of the planet being abandoned by the Hutts," said Dorsk 82, drawing stares from the others. He shrugged, "What? I can't read war documents?"**

**A shrill, piercing alarm sounded. The Jedi rushed to see what was going on, with Dorsk 82 and Kirana Ti manning the guns. They saw a cluster of large comets, over twenty of them, shooting around in elliptical orbits, shooting bright tails of superheated gas. The comets then _turned _to shoot towards them, one particularly fast one grazing their shields and coloring their sensor screens in blinding white light.**

**Jaina shouted at the rest of the Jedi, "Comets can't turn like that! They shouldn't even be turning around randomly in the first place!"**

"**Then thesssssseeee are no ordinary cometsssss, yes?" asked one of the Chaa triplets.**

"**I don't think so! Look!" shouted Jacen, as one of the comets sprouted a tail of vapor, and sprouted two 'horns'. The comet's horns then grew claws that resembled a crabbex's, which opened and closed in their direction.**

**Jaina jerked the ship into a barrel roll, narrowly avoiding the comet's flailing claws. The comet then tumbled to a halt, rotated to face them, and shot forward again. Kirana Ti cursed in Dathomirian, and let loose a volley of bright red quad-laser shots. The shots hit the comet, which glowed green in color, and then increased in speed. Curses flew around the cabin.**

"**Eat this, thingie!" shouted Dorsk 82, as he shot a triple-package of plasma space mines towards the comets, which had now formed an arrowhead formation, with the clawed comet as the point of the arrowhead.**

**The space mines shot off, spinning at amazingly fast speeds. As they approached the swarm of charging comets, they exploded in a ball of supercharged plasma, a flower of death that belched out pieces of the comets. The remaining comets, blown out of formation by the shockwaves of the blast, spun out of position, their plasma tails flashing in a futile attempt to get back on course. The Jedi steered their ship out of the comet's orbital area, moving down towards Nal Hutta.**

"**That was close," breathed Jaina, slumping in her seat, while the Chaa triplets hissed in relief, butting heads.**

"**Descending into the atmosphere… Wow!" said Jacen, who was now manning the sensors.**

"**What?" said one of the Chaa triplets.**

"**The oxygen concentration of the air has increased, and the water content too! The air is also much more humid than it was once!" exclaimed Jacen, in astonishment, "It must have taken some _EXTREME _terra-forming work to accomplish this."**

"**It sounds like an Ithorian greenhouse," remarked Kirana Ti, who had come down from the dorsal quad-laser turret.**

"**What'sssss a greenhousssse?" asked the triplets.**

"**It's a structure where people grow plants in a controlled environment. The temperature, soil type, and even atmosphere of a greenhouse are usually different from the planet it's on. That's how we grow exotic plants on Coruscant and other worlds," replied Jacen.**

"**Humansss," said one of the triplets, shaking his/ her head, "We'll never underssssstand them."**

"**Hey! We're… SITHSPIT!" cursed Jaina, as the ship rolled suddenly, throwing the Jedi inside around like rag dolls. On the sensor screens they saw a dark cloud of fast-moving shapes. Loud screeches were heard as the ship bucked and rolled, as though being hit by multiple projectiles simultaneously.**

"**What the kriff is happening?" asked Dorsk 82.**

"**I have no idea!" shouted Jaina, "We seem to be flying through a swarm of projectiles!"**

**Out of the blue, a long, metallic-looking spike pierced through the hull of the ship, which happened to be the ship's thinnest part. The spike retracted, and was followed by several more stabbing through at the same time. They could now hear the animal-like, loud screeching of whatever was attacking the ship. They also heard the metallic screeching sound of the ship's hull being scratched at by things. They frantically tried to clear the bridge, which now had many spikes sticking upwards through the floor. Looking through the unbroken transparisteel bridge view port, saw gigantic flying creatures flying around the ship, flapping their enormous wings. The creatures had long, beak-like protuberances and claws that glinted in the bright sunlight, as though the appendages were made of metal. Some of the creatures screeched from their wide-open mouths, baring rows of metallic-looking teeth.**

"**Jacen, distract them!" said Kirana Ti, who was firing off quad-laser blasts at the creatures, which mostly dodged the shots with surprising agility.**

"**I… can't!" cried Jacen, turning to look at her, panic in his eyes, "They're like empty holes in the Force! You know, like….like…. like an ysalamiri!"**

**The others stared at him, mouths agape.**

"**You mean these… _things_ are Force-immune?" asked Dorsk 82.**

"**Yes, and they're swarming the belly of our ship!" yelled Jaina, as the ship was rocked around with greater intensity.**

**The floor was, by now, full of neat, ovoid puncture holes. As they bundled into an escape pod, the last thing they saw before the pod's hatch irised shut was the sight of several metallic-looking, bird-like claws that came through the bridge floor, which grazed the ceiling and ripped the ship's conduits and wiring to shreds.**

**xxx**

**The pod shot away from the ship with a roar of propellant engines. They crowded the pod's view port, watching the ship start to smoke at the bow. The creatures flew off, leaving the ship to fly forward, but at a sharp angle to the ground. The ship rolled several times, hitting trees as it crashed, showing its mangled ventral hull segment. It finally crashed into a colossal tree, exploding in a flower of flames. The pod finally succumbed to Nal Hutta's gravity, spinning in a graceless tumble to land with a crash on the ground. The Jedi exited the pod, which had now opened up. They were on a cliff, and the view before them was breathtaking.**

**The metal-limbed creatures were flying into a cluster of caves on the sides of the canyons adjacent to the cliff they were on. Below the cliff, they saw an ominous-looking, swampy area, shrouded in mist, with occasional flocks of small birds that rose into the air noisily. In the titanic trees surrounding the cliff, various animals were visible, ranging from brightly-colored ones to dark-toned, sinister-looking ones. They were awed with the sight, for Nal Hutta had been a wasteland since the Hutts had started living on it. Suddenly, a soft droning noise filled the air.**

**Turning around, they saw a flying swarm of _things_ that formed a dark, cloudlike mass. As the cloud came closer, they saw that the approaching things were actually large spiders-somehow looking very much like the Kashyyyk Trap Spinner, but bigger and with transparent, insectoid wings, much like those of the Drongarian Flare-Wings. The spiders flew closer to them, and they ignited their drawn lightsabers, which only seemed to make the spiders hasten their aerial approach.**

**Kirana Ti, ever the jungle expert, let out a cry, "Look at that! They're climbing up the cliff walls as well! We're in a pincer attack formation!"**

**The others whirled to look, and saw that Kirana Ti was right; dozens of the spiders were swarming up the steep cliff walls, and were crawling up behind them in a rapidly-moving mass of wings, legs, and shiny eyes. The spiders came closer, and the Jedi tensed, prepping themselves for their next move. The spiders swarmed forward, venom dripping sinisterly from their clicking mandibles. Each spider had eight large eyes, which glinted menacingly with reflections of the morning sun. As they drew within eight meters of the Jedi, both the flying and the crawling swarms stopped their approach. The flying spiders landed, and the foremost spiders started jumping towards the Jedi in a series of bounding leaps, their wings unfolding so that they could glide, easily clearing two meters of distance, in a fast jump that brought them five meters in the air.**

**Jacen tried a Force push, but merely ruffled the short, spiky, maroon fur on the spiders' bodies, and made their wings flap slightly, as if blown by a weak wind. The spiders unfolded their wings, better balancing themselves in their jumps towards the Jedi, who had formed a rosette of blades, their backs to each other, blades outwards. The first spiders, on approaching the Jedi, found themselves in multiple pieces, smoking where the lightsabers had sliced through them.**

**They fought silently, grimly. They were fighting a losing battle against the spiders, which were now spraying out copious amounts of webbing which was fast-solidifying, and had already hit them, nearly paralyzing their limbs in awkward positions. Spiders had started to crawl onto their bodies, and they were spared the horror of feeling the spiders sinking their fangs into them by the sudden retreat of the spiders, which fled the area. An armored flying craft hovered nearby, and eight men in black bodysuits had them at weapon-point. The tallest man spoke.**

"**Come with us. You are under arrest."**


	4. Locked Up

Locked Up 

"Like we're going to surrender," hissed Kirana Ti, looking at the men with daggers in her eyes.

"You're going to come with us, or we'll leave you to the spiders. You're all within their colony's hunting range," replied the man, leveling a blaster rifle at her.

"We're not scared of some bugs!" said Dorsk 82, "You'd better tell us what's going on here!"

"SHUT THE KRIFF UP!" yelled the tall man, turning to a squat man behind him, "Send out the senislugs."

The squat man threw a fistful of squirming grubs at the Jedi. As soon as the grubs impacted on the ground, they exploded in a cloud of pungent cobalt gas. The Jedi felt drowsiness overcome them before they could even hold their breath. The world spiraled into darkness around them…

Jaina woke up from her drugged sleep, mucus streaming from her nose. She wiped it away, and felt as though she had inhaled a whole fistful of Ithorian Fire Pepper. Looking around, she saw that Jacen, Kirana Ti, Dorsk 82, herself, and the Chaa triplets had been bound with stun cuffs and put in a Universal Energy Cage. Jaina recognized it as a relic from the Imperial era, designed by the mad scientist Umak Leth, who had also been the engineer of the Galaxy Gun and World Devastators. The cage held them securely in the cargo hold of the armored patrol craft that had picked them up from the cliff where they had been attacked by strange spiders. From occasional bumps and jerks, she knew the craft was in motion.

"Any idea who's running this show?" asked Jacen, as he looked around the cargo hold.

"Probably those guys who drugged us just now," said Kirana Ti, wiping the mucus off her face with an obvious look of disgust, "What's with the mucus, though?"

"Normal sssside effectsss of sssenissssslug gassss," hissed one of the Chaa triplets, "Irritated nassssssal membranesssssss, nassssssal disssssschargessssss, ssssskin inflammationssssss, and probably irritated eyesssss."

"Right….," said Jacen, cleaning himself up after a fresh bout of streaming mucus, "Where're we?"

Before anyone could answer, the ship came to a rough stop. They crashed into each other, piling up in a corner of the cage. The cargo hold's door opened, and ten of the men-in-bodysuits they had seen earlier stepped in. The tall men stepped forward and used a remote to activate the cage's base-mounted repulsorlifts, lifting the cage off the floor. Turning around, he made the cage follow him out of the cargo hold, out of the ship, and onto a pier, towards a boat that seemed to be running on repulsorlifts. Jacen thought he saw several things moving about under the water's surface, but was distracted by the man's loud voice.

"Listen here, you _Jedi_. We're going to cross the Lake Alpha, and if any of you misbehave… Well, suffice to say that Doctor Carlz won't notice one of you missing," said the man, starting up the boat after the cage had been bolted to the deck.

"We'll have the last laugh," said Jaina, glaring at the man, who ignored her.

The boat hovered sped forward, never touching the surface of the lake due to its repulsorlifts. Under the water, Jacen saw that the moving things were actually large, pallid fishes with luminescent green eyes. The fish kept pace with the boat, and often got knocked aside by the repulsor beams underneath the boat. The fish would then continue to pursue the boat, occasionally jumping out of the water to snap at the boat.

When the boat finally docked, they saw that they were in an indoor pier, which had numerous empty cages on it. They saw a richly-dressed man approach, and felt a growing apprehension.

The man stepped right up to the cage. Smiling, he said, "Welcome, my dear Jedi. Welcome to my planet."


	5. Interrogation

**Interrogation**

Carlz looked at the seven Jedi in front of him. They were suffering from the side-effects of senislug gas, but that was alright. If he didn't get what he wanted, they would soon be suffering from much more than mere physical irritations.

"What brings you to Nal Hutta? I hardly think it is the most happening plce in the galaxy right now," he said, signaling to the guards, which started moving the energy cage.

"You've been up to something here, and we're supposed to find out what," replied Kirana Ti, glaring at him.

"Really? I'd just have to interrogate you, then," said Carlz, "Guards, take them to Buter's torture chambers."

"Wait, did you just mention Doctor Ernst Buter?" asked Jacen, curious, "The former authority on genetic engineering?"

Carlz laughed, "The reason he got dismissed is the reason why I'm here."

With that puzzling statement, Carlz walked of laughing, leaving behind six confused Jedi, and one slowly-understanding Jacen.

xxx

The guards maneuvered the energy cage through dark, winding, musty-smelling corridors. They came to a stop in front of a large blast door, which was studded with rivets the size of a humanoid's fist. The door opened, and the guards pushed the cage inside. The door slammed shut upon their entry, leaving them in darkness.

Jaina turned to Jacen, "Who is that Buter guy?"

"That would be an interesting question," said Kirana Ti, "Jacen, kindly explain."

"From what I know, Professor Ernst Buter was the galaxy's leading authority on genetic manipulation and genetic engineering. But, five years ago, he was dismissed from his post as Mon Calamari University's Head of the Bio-Sciences department. I'm not clear about WHY he was fired, though. I think it was dangerous experimentation involving cross-breeding," said Jacen, running a hand through his hair.

"I WAS FIRED! THEY FIRED ME!" angry shouting came from somewhere in the dark room, "THEY SAID I WAS MAD, AN INSANE LUNATIC! BUT THEY WERE WRONG…"

A tall, scarecrow-like man with white hair came into sight. Dorsk 82 noticed that his skin seemed to be emitting some sort of greenish light, like a bioluminescent organism. The man's eyes were large and solidly yellow. He had no visible pupils, making him look rather Chiss-like. He was clad in a standard laboratory lab coat, with the handles of various surgical instruments sticking out of hi pockets. He walked out of sight, and the lights came on, revealing a room jam-packed with instruments of torture and interrogation. Along one wall resided a rack of sinister-looking droids, and placed all over the room were surgical repulsor-trolleys, with what looked like Dr. Evazan's clinic laid out on them. On the ceiling were large pipes with numerous ysalamiri clinging to them. Jaina's eyes narrowed as she realized what had nullified their abilities to use the Force.

Buter walked up to them in the cage, and was followed by a brass-colored droid that looked sadistic. He stopped in front of a helmet that was suspended from the ceiling on a heavy chain. It was spherical, about two feet in diameter, with a polymer seal-collar and several transparisteel portholes. It looked like a diving helmet from ancient times, complete with several hoses and pipes attached to it.

"Now, my good friend Crix Carlz has requested that I torture you until I know every reason for your presence here on Nal Hutta. Don't bother using your mystical religion here-I've packed the room with ysalamiri."

"We won't tell you anything, you filth-eater," hissed Dorsk 82, "You can kill us, but you'll get nothing."

Buter sighed, and turned to the brass droid next to him, "Eve dear, get the Khommite."

The droid nodded and opened the cage. She leveled a Glottalphib swamp stunner at them, and used a teras kasi grip to pull Dorsk out of the cage. The cage was locked again. Dorsk was hauled up to Buter.

"The 'Galactic Encyclopedia of Sentient Life-Forms' states that a Khommite can hold its breath for four standard minutes," said Buter, caressing the suspended helmet, "But I think that the book stated that in a hypothetical manner. Therefore we shall test just HOW long a Khmmite can hold its breath."

By now, the droid called Eve had put the helmet over Dorsk's head. He had been restrained using several sets of stun cuffs.

"Is there anything you'd like to tell me?" asked Buter, looking at the six Jedi left in the cage.

"What are you doing to Dorsk?" asked Jaina, staring at Buter.

"That would be up to you. Eve, start the machine."

The Jedi watched in horror as water was pumped into the airtight helmet. Dorsk appeared to be screaming through the transparisteel, but the water soon covered his mouth. The water level kept on rising until his whole head was submerged. A stream of tiny bubbles left Dorsk's mouth.

"Let him out of that thing!" shouted Jacen, as Dorsk started to show signs of discomfort.

"Young Jedi, do you know what this instrument is called?" asked Buter, who was watching Dorsk in the helmet.

"I DON'T GIVE A FRELL! LET HIM OUT!" bellowed Jacen.

"This helmet is called a Givin Breath-Holding Helmet," said Buter. Dorsk was looking beseechingly at his friends. Buter continued, "Givin pilots in cantinas used to bet on how long they could hold their breath using these. Of course, the helmet's seal-collars were built with a timing device. If the bet was five minutes, then the sel would only disengage after five minutes. If it was an hour, it would unseal in an hour. And Givin, with their abilities to hold their breath, have built the timers with a minimum unsealing time of half a standard hour."

Dorsk was now visibly struggling in the helmet. His limbs trashed around in their restraints.

"Let him out, Buter!" cried Jaina, as blood began to ooze out of Dorsk's nostrils.

"My information first, thank you very much."

As the other Jedi panicked Kirana Ti was trying to reach a large blaster that was on the floor two feet from the cage. Judging from the empty hook above it, the blaster must have fallen off the hook.

Kirana Ti was throwing her fiber cord in an attempt to get th blaster, and finally snagged it. A quick glance at Dorsk told her time was short-his eyes had rolled over and only the whites were visible.

"STAND BACK!"

TSEEEWWW! A large blaster bolt tore through the cage's circuitry, shutting the cage down. As the Jedi jumped out towards Dorsk, Buter and Eve had each picked up large, deadly-looking objects from a rack on the wall.

Dorsk's mouth was moving like a fish's, opening and closing, puppet-like. Blood oozing from his nostrils was turning the water red.

"Move!" shouted Kirana Ti, using the blaster she had picked up to try and melt the transparisteel. At its lowest setting, the blaster made small holes in the transparisteel, letting the water out slowly.

Dorsk suddenly went limp in his restraints, and one of the Chaa triplets snapped.

"GEEYAH!" hissed the reptilian Jedi, as he viciously punched the helmet's largest porthole. A spider's web of cracks appeared.

Another hard punch was doled out, fast. The transparisteel gave way, blood-filled water rushing out of the broken porthole. Dorsk lay limp in the helmet, not breathing. The seal disengaged, and Dorsk fell out of the helmet. His body showed no signs of life.

Before the Jedi could try any form of resuscitation, Buter's angry voice cut through the tension like a vibroblade.

"He lasted for five minutes. And you broke one of my favorite toys, and now there'll be shit to pay for that!"

They turned to face him, and saw Buter and Eve approaching them, massive shock prods in their hands. The two torturers pressed several buttons, and large arcs of electricity shot out of the rods, towards the seven Jedi.


End file.
